The Ancient Israelite World

1. An Introduction to the Ancient Israelite World: The State of the Field and Future Directions
2. The Historical Geography of Ancient Israel: The Amalekite Spoil List (1 Sam 30:27–31) as a Case Study
3. Competing Chronologies, Competing Histories: Ancient Israel and the Chronology of the Southern Levant ca. 1200–587 BCE
4. The Historian and the Assemblage: On the Interpretation of Texts and Artifacts for the History of Ancient Israel
5. Between the Biblical Story and History: Writing an Archaeological History of Ancient Israel
6. Texts, Archaeology, and Ethnicity: Identifying Ancient Israel
7. A Technological and Sociological Perspective on Ancient Israelite Pottery
8. Domestic Architecture, the Household, and Daily Life in Iron Age Israel
9. Monuments, Monumental Architecture, and Monumentality in Ancient Israel
10. Stone Volutes: United by a Common Motif not by a Common Function
11. From Urban Centers into Mounds of Ruins: The Destruction of Cities during the Iron Age
12. Regional Continuity and Change in Ancient Israel: An Analysis of Iron Age Settlement Patterns and Systems
13. Ancient Israel’s Social Structure(s)
14. Tribal Kingdoms and the Tribal Element in Southern Levantine Iron Age Polities
15. Israel’s Political and Administrative Structures in the Pre-Monarchic and Monarchic Periods
16. The Judahite Economy in First Temple Times: Remodeling the House of David—A Case Study from Tell en-Naṣbeh
17. The Socioeconomics of Food and Feasting in Pre-Exilic Israel and Judah
18. Gender in Ancient Israel
19. Children in Ancient Israel
20. Social Issues in the Establishment of Biblical Law in the Iron Age
21. Warfare and Intelligence Gathering in Ancient Israel
22. Literacy and Scribalism in Israel during the Iron Age (ca. 1200/1150–586 BCE)
23. More than the Sum of Their Parts: Multimodality and the Study of Iron Age Inscriptions
24. Socio-political Gleanings from Northwest Semitic Paleography: The Inscriptions from Tel Reḥov, as a Test Case
25. Language in Israel and Judah: A Sociolinguistic Reappraisal
26. The Composition of the Hebrew Bible: Process in the Production of Israelite Literature
27. Religion in the House in Ancient Israel
28. Visual Culture and Religion in Ancient Israel and Judah
29. The Archaeology of Israelite Cult: Yahwisms across Space and Time
30. The Role of Ritual in Biblical Narrative
31. Israelite Prophecy from Its Origins to the Exile
32. Death and Afterlife
33. Amorites and Canaanites: Memory, Tradition, and Legacy in Ancient Israel and Judah
34. New Kingdom Egypt and Early Israel: Entangled Identities
35. Philistines and Israelites/Judahites: Antagonism and Interaction
36. Early Interactions between the Arameans and Israelites
37. Phoenicians and Ancient Israel
38. Ammonites in the World of Israel
39. The Invention of Ancient Moab
40. Edom and Southern Jordan in the Iron Age
41. Egypt and the Levant in the Third Intermediate Period (Iron IB–IIIA): Fragmentation, Foreignness, and Fungibility
42. Reconstructing the Kushite Royal House: The Chronology of Egypt’s 25th Dynasty and Its Relation to Judah
43. Israel and Assyria, Judah and Assyr

This volume presents a collection of studies by international experts on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society, economy, religion, language, culture, and history, synthesizing archaeological remains and integrating them with discussions of ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts. Driven by theoretically and methodologically informed discussions of the archaeology of the Iron Age Levant, the 47 chapters in The Ancient Israelite World provide foundational, accessible, and detailed studies in their respective topics. The volume considers the history of interpretation of ancient Israel, studies on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society and history, and avenues for present and future approaches to the ancient Israelite world. Accompanied by over 150 maps and figures, it allows the reader to gain an understanding of key issues that archaeologists, historians and biblical scholars have faced and are currently facing as they attempt to better understand ancient Israelite society. The Ancient Israelite World is an essential reference work for students and scholars of ancient Israel and its history, culture, and society, whether they are historians, archaeologists or biblical scholars.